History

The majority of historians have agreed that coffee originated from the Kaffa region of Ethiopia. However, the Arabs were the first to cultivate coffee, and the name ‘coffee’ is considered a derivative from “qahwa” in Arabic, which means beverage made from plants.

In the 13th century, coffee moved to the Arabic countries when the Ethiopian army invaded Yemen. As alcohol was forbidden in Islam, the Arabs took to drinking coffee instead of alcohol as their main beverage, which saw the soaring popularity of coffee.

In the early phases of their coffee consumption, the Arabs simply chewed on coffee cherries in order to get the juice. Later on they started to mix crushed coffee cherries with animal fat to make energy balls for long travels. It was not until the year 1000 when green coffee cherries were brewed for making beverage. In the 13th century, the Arabs began to roast and ground coffee cherries.

Up until the 15th century, coffee was monopolized by the Arabic countries and available only in Islamic territories, where it was an extremely important social drink. As a result, coffee cultivation and preparation methods were continuously refined by the Arabs.

By the 16th and the 17th centuries, coffee had made its way to Europe through trade relations with Venetian merchants and the Dutch. The aromatic beverage of intricate flavors mixing sourness, sweetness and bitterness captivated the European nobility. The worth of coffee rose significantly, even garnering the nickname of ‘black gold’.